Although Huzbend had to go back to work, the rest of us had a few days to recover from the vacation.
There were some overdue doctors appointments for Katie and we took some of that time to go through all the stuff that came home during the last few days of desk/locker clean out in June.
Here are some gems from Mikey....
"Life:
Life. I was born.
Drived home.
Cryed alot.
I died......"
Hilarious.
The line off of the end of 'died' is a nice touch.
"The Story of Snoke White"
An instant classic.
This is what happens when kids have to write "journal" entries, have recently read a lot of Captain Underpants and are very uninspired.....
"Barbacua:
I ated supa hot dogs. I got supa face paint. I did supa stuff. I did the stuff for three hours. I supa waited for a while."
An instructional text.
"Swordfighting:
1. Parry
2. Counter
3. Dodge
4. Slaughter
5. Try not to die"
Katie had some good ones too....
From Leadership class:
"What are the things that stand between you and complete happiness?"
Answer: "Fantasy not becoming reality."
"How would you describe yourself in five words?"
Answer: "A creative ball of energy"
"If you could ask a single person any question and they had to answer it truthfully, who and what would you ask?"
Answer: "I would ask my brother why he is always trying to annoy me."
A history final project.....a poster game show!
Here are a few of the questions....
...lift the flap to find the answers.
That Saturday, Katie had an IV infusion, so Mikey and Huzbend went off on a hike.
Mikey was in charge of reading a map that was leftover from one of Huzbend's past adventure races.
When Katie got home, she made herself a Remi-cake.
Katie tells me that this is, "a mermaid swimming in the ocean."
And then Sunday rolled around and Katie was off on another adventure.
This time she was away for the week at overnight Girl Scout camp.
This time she was away for the week at overnight Girl Scout camp.
It's something that she's been begging to do for a while.
They did handle her allergies and celiac okay....at least there were no reactions or glutenings.
So, that's good.
Still made us nervous.
But, not Katie.
She had a great time.
She selected this specific camp because of its Theater focus.
They had to put on a performance for the whole camp.
Meanwhile, back at home....
my job was to entertain Mikey for the week.
We started off with a little bowling followed by ice cream.
It was supa hot out.
And then someone got even older.
He can still blow out a candle though.
Next up, we hit the zoo.
Smelly penguins.
Mikey was not to thrilled about feeding this cockatiel.
They gave each other the stink eye before Mr. Cockatiel flew off to another meal.
Mommy/Mikey zoo selfie.
We filled up the rest of the week with a few different things.
A hike/dog walk.
I really like this picture.
Mikey was trying to get a picture of this yellow flower.
He climbed up a hill to take a million photos of it.
So, I took a photo of him.
We did some ice skating.
We pretty much had the rink to ourselves.
There was NOBODY there.
Mikey likes to fall down.
And then, we ended with blueberry picking.
Which means that by mid-July, Mikey had picked the Berry Trifecta - raspberries, strawberries and blueberries.
We can pick blackberries just about all over the place.
They're everywhere.
One for the bucket....eighteen for me.....
As you can see, he is a very dedicated blueberry picker.
Ooooo.
Look at all the yummy goodness.
So tempting....I'm surprised they made it home.
We picked Katie up on a Friday and she was exhausted.
So, the next day, Mikey and Daddy decided to ride from our house, down to the 520 bridge and ride across it.
All in all, it was about a 20 mile bike ride.
They made quite a few snack/water breaks.
Here's Mikey at UDub.
And here he is making his way across the bridge.
It took quite a while, hours and hours, but they made it!
We were so proud of Mikey.
The following week, BOTH kids were off at a two week day camp at Digipen.
Katie was doing Art & Animation: Part 2 and Mikey was doing 2D Game Design.
Meanwhile, Ralph took a nap.
It was very quiet.
On Friday of the first week, Digipen hosts a BBQ for the kids. They have a raffle, food, video game tournaments, crafts and, of course, a king-of-the-hill inflatable.
Sailor Jupiter vs. Little Brother
I can't say that it wasn't entertaining.....maybe we should get one for our backyard.....
Since the kids basically sat on their butts all week at camp, it was time for a hike.
We went in search of waterfalls.
We also found an old growth tree.
The picture just doesn't do it justice.
A child (maybe even 8 children) could easily hide behind it to pee.
Just sayin'.
Ralph loves hiking.
He especially loves it if there's water involved.
The muddier the better.
Waterfall!
It was really hot.
"We walked all this way to LOOK at water?"
Poor Ralph.
We found Ralph a stream to splash around in before we made our way back down the trail.
Happy dog.
At one point, the trail parallels a river.
There is no way that our kids can pass by any body of water and not jump in it.
It was time to swim.
Since the water comes from the snow melt in the mountains, it's pretty damn cold.
Ralph had no issue.
Katie had no issue either.
She eased her way in.
And soon was swimming around.
It took Mikey a bit.....
"AHHHHHHHH!!!!"
But, he finally joined her.
Ralph had his fill of river water and decided to chill out.
The kids swam for, like, an hour or so.
We weren't in any rush to leave.
It was nice there by the river.
When they did come out, they were a bit shivery.
This is what happens when you wear your clothes in the river and then you have to drive home.....
That next day was, "The Day Before Mikey's Birthday."
So, he got to pick dinner and he had a little pre-birthday pie.
9!!!!
The next day, in honor of Mikey's actual birthday, we had fondue.
Here, Katie is enjoying a feeding frenzy of broccoli and cauliflower.
She also grew a tomato from a plant she brought home from 6th grade science.
She was a proud tomato momma.
After dinner, Mikey opened his birthday gifts.
He was just a tad excited.
Just a tad.
After opening his presents, he played "Marvel Powers United", a VR game.
And then, finished off his special day with more pie.
Happy 9, Mikey!
